Suffolk Pols Approve Adding Fentanyl Test Strips To Narcan Kits

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Suffolk lawmakers haved approved a plan to make detection strips for the deadly synthetic opiate fentanyl more readily-available to residents in an effort to help prevent opioid overdoses.

The county's Department of Health Services would be required to include fentanyl test strips with kits that are distributed during department trainings of civilians on how to use the opioid antidote naloxone. The theory behind the legislation is that increasing access to fentanyl detection strips will allow recipients to test drug doses for the presence of this deadly synthetic substance prior to using the drugs.

The bill will now head to desk of County Executive Steve Bellone for his signature.

Legis. Kara Hahn, who sponsored the legislation, said she pushed the county to become certified to provide naloxone trainings that put the "life-saving antidote in more hands,"

"Fentanyl kills, that is why I am pushing for increased access to test strips, which will give this life-saving tool greater reach,” she said.

Hahn explained that allowing users the ability to know if they are about to put a drug in their body containing fentanyl "will save lives and begin to reduce the increasing overdose deaths devastating our community."

Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Executive Director Steve Chassman lauded the Legislature's move, saying it addresses "the tragic realities of the duel pandemic" of the opioid crisis which is fueled by fear and the anxieties of COVID-19 "by providing the need for wide-spread harm reduction measures to reduce the number of fatal opioid overdoses."

“The distribution of fentanyl test strips and continued widespread distribution of naloxone meets this public health challenge head-on with the sole and primary objective of saving lives in Suffolk County," he said. "Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures to aid so many individuals and families struggling with opioid use disorder."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warned this week that in 2021 agents had seized enough fentanyl to give a lethal dose to every person in America. Back in September, the agency issued its first Public Safety Alert in six years to warn the public about the alarming increase in the availability and lethality of fake prescription pills that often contain deadly doses of fentanyl. In its advisory, the agency reported it two out of every five pills with fentanyl contain a potentially-lethal dose.

Hahn called the testr strip policy "a harm reduction strategy.”

“Addiction is a disease that must not be allowed to become a death sentence, which, as more and more fentanyl has been released into our communities, it has become for many who might otherwise have recovered if given a chance,” she said.